Advanced education programs receive national accreditation

Teachers College, the professional unit responsible for education programs campus-wide, hosted a regular review in 2003. At that time, the undergraduate programs received full accreditation, but the advanced programs — those that grant master's degrees or higher and license renewal programs — were accredited with conditions. Following a two-year review process, NCATE's Unit Assessment Board found that questions raised during the 2003 review and a 2005 follow-up visit had been sufficiently answered to merit full accreditation.

"This is excellent news, and I am extremely grateful to the leadership of the Teachers College and to all the faculty, staff and administrators campuswide who worked so hard over the past two years to ensure that we received full accreditation," said Ball State President Jo Ann M. Gora. "The matters in question were technical ones, and I am pleased that they did not overshadow the NCATE report's praise for the quality of our students, faculty and curriculum.

"The quality of our programs has also just been validated by U.S. News & World Report, which ranked our graduate secondary education program tied for 55th in the country."

NCATE's regularly scheduled reaccreditation visit in 2003 raised concerns about the data used to evaluate students and the method used to collect and evaluate the data. Roy Weaver, dean of Teachers College, says over the last two years, education faculty across the campus fully addressed the issues raised in 2003.

"We have come out of this process with a strengthened assessment process and will continue to fine tune our data collection and assessment processes. This allows us to move forward with our mission, which is to prepare students to meet the educational needs of our society."

The next NCATE reaccreditation visit for undergraduate and advanced programs will occur in 2010.

(Note to editors: For more information on this story, contact Roy Weaver or call 765-285-5251.)